Wednesday 25th September 2019
Updates to Bestway Wholesale website make shopping more convenient for customers
Bestway Wholesale, the leading independent food and drink wholesaler, has made updates to its e-commerce website to make shopping even more convenient for customers. Updates include improving the search functionality by introducing auto-complete, a clear button, and ensuring products still appear if customers mistype words.
The updates will also benefit suppliers, whose products will now appear in more searches and who will now have more opportunity to advertise on the site to make their products stand out. These changes have resulted in a 1.5% increase in conversion rate for customers purchasing on the website.
The changes have been made by the company’s in-house digital marketing team. Head of digital and marketing at Bestway, Salih Sheikh, comments: “Our expert digital conversion team were tasked to make online shopping easier for customers, as we pride ourselves on giving customers choice and making it convenient for them to shop with us. The team implemented some great, subtle changes to the site which have enhanced the user experience and provided more opportunities for suppliers.
“Our customers can shop in depot, via our app on a mobile phone or tablet and on the website, and all of our digital platforms are integrated so that customers can start their order on one device and finish it on another using the same login. We’ve ensured our e-commerce website carries the same usability as consumer shopping websites, so that customers get the best shopping experience with Bestway.”
The full list of enhancements includes:
- An additional 65,000 product images have been added to the site, providing customers with a more tangible feel for each product
- Product titles will be updated to improve search algorithms and to make it clear exactly what the customer is purchasing
- Products will now appear even if a word is spelt slightly incorrectly
- The search bar now includes an auto-complete function and a clear button, making it easier to search for new items
- The default display of search items will appear by relevance so the product most likely on the customers list will be the first to appear
- Customers can shop by supplier via buttons on the website homepage
- Product page recommendations will now contain an add to basket function and details of price, POR and case level
- Product recommendations will be shown on the check-out page.
Bestway has also used Hotjar on its website to provide a heatmapping analysis to suppliers. This has resulted in permanent arrows being added to the homepage carousel and some of the non-used features and duplicates being removed, so it’s easier for customers to find what they are looking for. The carousel banners also change automatically in line with stock levels now too, to avoid customers being shown a great deal on products that are out of stock.
The conversion team have also developed style guidelines for suppliers who advertise on the website, to ensure consistency for customers and to make it easier for suppliers to meet the brand requirements.
Sheikh adds: “We pride ourselves on being leaders in digital and continue to make enhancements to improve the shopping experience and replicate what you see in the consumer online-shopping world. We take feedback from customers and suppliers on board and use this to enhance our list of upcoming developments.”